Beasts from the East: Japans Ultimate Performance Cars

RRP £19.99

Hardcover, 176 pages

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Reviews

(Rated 4 out of 5)

This book profiles forty Japanese performance cars of varying desirability. The major manufacturers and their most famous cars are covered as well as the different generations of the Evo, Skyline, Celica, MR2, Impreza, MX5, RX7 etc. But how a 99bhp Daihatsu Charade GTti can be considered a performance car next to a 320bhp Mk4 Toyota Supra I don't know.

Each cars spec and timeline is covered as well as a very concise What We Like and What We Don't Like feature. Power is given in bhp as it should be. The more popular or desirable cars are given more page space - the Impreza has eight pages while the Isuzu Vehicross only has two.

Although not as comprehensive as A-Z Japanese performance cars by Chris Rees I would say that this book is the better of the two for a number of reasons. This book is written in a less formal and more reader-friendly style and the cars are covered in greater detail. It is obvious that the author has had actual driving experience of many of the cars he writes about. His opinions are backed up by quotes from leading magazines such as Evo and Autocar. Most of the cars are photographed from different angles and the book includes engine and cockpit pictures. The advise on imports is very brief but helpful - basically make sure you buy from a BIMTA member and make sure it's properly undersealed. The advise on modifying is also very brief and may not be informative to those with hands on experience of these cars.

In summary, this book is accessible, reader-friendly, full of great photographs and information and should be on your shelf if you love Japanese metal.